1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to loop instructions. In one example, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for using modifier registers to implement loop instructions.
2. Description of Related Art
Various hardware devices such as general purpose processors, cryptography accelerators, video accelerators, digital signal processing (DSP) processors, and microcontrollers are capable of performing loop operations. Loop operations involve having a processor repeatedly execute a sequence of instructions on different data sets. For example, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) operations involve the use of inner loops to perform instructions on multidimensional data sets.
In some instances, loops are nested within other loops. For example, inner loop operations may be called during the execution of a particular cycle of an outer loop operation. In some instances, loop can be nested within loops leading to significant nesting depth. However, conventional mechanisms for handling loops and particularly nested loops are limited. Consequently, it is desirable to provide improved techniques and mechanisms for performing loop execution.